COLUMN: Niner time soon here for Charlotte fans

Saturday

Aug 24, 2013 at 12:01 AMAug 24, 2013 at 3:37 PM

Artie Beaty

When I displayed a “Countdown to Kickoff” T-shirt near my Gazette desk about three years ago, Charlotte 49ers football was still nearly 1,000 days away. Administrators in board rooms in Raleigh had approved the idea of UNC Charlotte fielding a collegiate team, but it was still just a concept. As a proud alumnus of the school, I knew football was coming, and I was excited. But it didn’t exactly seem “real.”

Since then, it’s become much more tangible. The team has hired a coaching staff, designed a helmet and uniforms, signed recruits and practiced for about two years, and intramural fields on the southern edge of campus gave way to a new football stadium complex.

When football kicks off on Aug. 31, it will be the biggest athletic event the campus of UNC Charlotte has ever seen — and likely the biggest event period. Charlotte has “officially” had football since it was approved in 2008, but it becomes real Saturday. I’m excited about the tailgates and the traditions that come along with college football, but possibly my favorite part of Charlotte football is how it even got to this point in the first place.

Like a number of other universities, there are plenty of myths about why UNC Charlotte never had a football team.

Stories about the young child of a school founder being killed while playing the sport or of a wealthy benefactor insisting on no football eventually were the prevailing legends. The primary reason the school hasn’t had football until now though, is a lot more simple. Economic concerns aside, there just wasn’t an organized push for it.

The school did field a football team in the 1940s, but that only lasted a short time. Organized groups tried several times to resurrect football, but to no avail. In 2006, a group of 15 students and alumni started a campaign that eventually led to campus wide vote asking students if they would be willing to pay increased fees to support a football team. More students participated in this vote than any other vote in the school’s history, and the result was overwhelming approval.

Widespread student approval led to numerous committee meetings and public forums, which eventually led to Chancellor Phillip Dubois officially recommending football to the UNC system board of trustees. The only condition though, was that fans raise the first $5 million for a stadium complex. Fans would not only meet, but surpass that mark.

When the school announced the addition of football, they also announced Forty-Niner Seat Licenses – similar to the PSLs (private seat licenses) of the Carolina Panthers. In short, just an expensive license that allows you to purchase 49ers football tickets. Many called that a risky proposition, especially given the current economic climate. All 5,000 FSLs were sold, and several hundred additional season tickets sold out within hours. Students have already requested more than their 7,500 ticket allotment, so they’ll be taking part in a lottery system.

Single game ticket aren’t even on sale, and school administrators have no plans to introduce them. Your only option now to purchase tickets on a game-by-game basis is the secondary market – where a ticket to the inaugural game has sold for an average of about $140. At least for this first season, Charlotte 49ers football is a pretty hot ticket.

I know it’s the inaugural season, and this is a special time – so it’s hard to tell if this level of excitement will endure. But I’ve already seen the school’s students and alumni more energized than I ever have before. Even the surrounding community seems more aware of the school. I’ve had people comment on Charlotte 49ers football at a gas station or stoplight when they see the license plate on my car. Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson believes so much in the program that he donated $10 million just to have his name on the stadium.

It seems like everything has fallen into place better than expected so far. But there have been plenty of detractors along the way. People that it couldn’t be done in this economy, that the city of Charlotte’s sports fans are too fickle to support a team, and that it would damage the school’s academic integrity.

Former UNC system president Dick Spangler even went so far as to say that college football should be left to the likes Chapel Hill and North Carolina State, and that UNC Charlotte should “work on its intramurals.”

I’ll stop just short of saying that the school “needed” football. But UNC Charlotte was one of largest schools in the nation without a football program. An essential college experience for so many just wasn’t available there. College football will bring UNC Charlotte alumni back to campus like no other sport has before, will give the school a brand new level of exposure, and be a spectacle like the campus has never seen.

Plenty of milestones have already been reached for the program: the first coach, the first player, the first uniform, and the first piece of ground broken for the on-campus stadium. The only milestone left will be accomplished at noon Saturday.

Gazette newsroom clerk Artie Beaty (class of 2006) can be reached at abeaty@gastongazette.com or twitter.com/aobeaty.